1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to data processing. Specifically, the present invention relates to the data processing of alarm information.
2. Description of the Prior Art
With the incredible emphasis and priority placed on communication networks, there is additional pressure placed on organizations that deploy and maintain communication systems for customers. As a result, service providers are interested in improved methods of operating communication networks.
While each service provider strives for uninterrupted operation of their network, there is no network that can maintain continual operations without failure. Every communication network will have operating failures. As a result, the ability to troubleshoot and correct problems in a communication network is of particular importance to service providers. Therefore, tremendous effort is expended on monitoring, troubleshooting, and correcting network failures.
One particular type of network failure is equipment failure. There is a class of methodologies that are directed at troubleshooting and correcting equipment failure before, during, and after the failure. Further, as a result of experience with troubleshooting equipment failures, service providers have identified a class of equipment failures that they can expect to occur (i.e., deterministic failures).
One type of deterministic failure is power/heat failure. Communications equipment, such as switching equipment, requires power to operate. However, commercial power occasionally fails. Most service providers have deployed battery backups to support communication equipment when power failure occurs. The battery backup will typically operate when the commercial power fails. However, batteries have a limited lifetime. Therefore, many service providers have also deployed gasoline-powered generators to keep the office powered. For some offices, the batteries are there to provide power to the office until a portable generator can be connected. For offices that have a generator already in the building, the batteries keep the equipment powered until the generators are started.
In addition to power failures, equipment also fails as a result of overheating. Therefore, in addition to monitoring equipment for power failure, the temperature of the equipment is also monitored to determine when the equipment is reaching a critical heat limit. Prior to reaching the critical limit, operators are dispatched to address the problem.
A variety of different systems are deployed to alert network operators of power failure and heat failure. However, these systems are rarely consolidated. In addition, many of these systems were phased into the network at different times. As a result, there may be a mixture of disparate systems within the network. For example, each system may monitor one type of problem, one region of the country, one customer, etc.
Many of these systems log network problems, but do not alert the operator. Therefore, a network problem may go unnoticed for a period of time (i.e., several minutes to hours). In cases where a generator is running out of gasoline or the heat in a communication component is rising toward a heat limit, time is critical. As a result, a network operator has to continually access and monitor a variety of systems (i.e., log files) to look for network problems.
In addition, each failure often generates a trouble ticket. Given the size of modern networks, the amount of trouble tickets may be voluminous. Analyzing a large amount of trouble tickets for the most critical failures may cause the network operator to lose critical time, if they are able to identify and isolate the trouble ticket at all.
Thus, there is a need for a method that consolidates information on power/heat failures. There is a need for a method of consolidating power/heat failure information in disparate networks. Lastly, there is a need for a method of consolidating information on network failures and presenting the information to a network operator in a quick and efficient manner.